Strengthening women’s economic security is essential to our fight for gender justice. Inadequate child care funding and politicized cuts to public supports have left women in caregiving and service sector jobs—disproportionately Black, Latina, and other women of color—living paycheck to paycheck or working multiple jobs to survive. Yet as these women struggle to make ends meet—sometimes working multiple jobs–, corporations rake in record profits. The lack of investment in our care infrastructure is compounded by inadequate wages for care workers, unfair work schedules, and the increasingly unattainable cost of care.
We need an economy and a tax system that work for everyday women and families—where working people are paid a living wage that allows them to make ends meet in safety and with dignity, and where communities have the resources to ensure that everyone has equal opportunity and freedom from discrimination and harassment.
By ensuring that corporations and the very wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, our communities can get the investments we need and deserve.” Politicians must unrig the economy, fix our unfair tax system, and invest in critical programs that will support families. We need meaningful investments in critical supports like child care, paid leave for all, enforcement of anti-discrimination protections, a higher the minimum wage, and other policies to help women and families thrive.
Politicians and lawmakers need to make sure women can enter, thrive, and stay in the workforce while also protecting professional caregivers, who are the backbone of our country.
National Women's Law Center Action Fund